Chapter 830: Eliminate the Root When Cutting Weeds

Historically speaking, the existence of the Wang clan's Goryeo was one great historical joke.

By the Central Plains dynasties' historical pattern of "long divided, must unite; long united, must divide," the next unifying dynasty would surely, because of the state name Goryeo, once again launch a ferocious war against the Wang clan's Goryeo — not merely to destroy the state, but along with it a great war of assimilation and extermination.

For the term Goguryeo, or Goryeo, in East Asia represented a challenge to the Central Plains dynasties centered on Henan and Shaanxi — a challenge that seized the cultural center.

But the historical development is clear: the Northern Song did not fulfill its historical mission, and the Khitan Liao state cared nothing whether the south was called Goguryeo or Silla.

The lingering aftereffect of this situation was that a thousand years later, the three words "Goguryeo" became a thorn that a tiny peninsula state kept using to pluck at the nerves of the great dynasty's people.

A dung beetle has no lethal power, but it is disgusting enough.

If in this era one could directly grind the Wang Geon family, who dared to claim descent from Goryeo, hard into the mud and water as punishment, and utterly destroy this little Goryeo state, then all the troubles of later ages would never have come about.

As for this lump of revolting dog shit, the people of this era perhaps felt little about it; they would only think it somewhat provocative that anyone still dared to call themselves Goryeo.

But Zhang Zhao understood full well how revolting this state name would become a thousand years later.

Therefore, before Murong Xinzhang led the great army south, Zhang Zhao had already given him instructions on this matter.

And in Murong Xinzhang's heart, whatever task Zhang Zhao assigned, merely completing it was not enough — it had to be over-fulfilled by two hundred percent.

Thus, the first thing Murong Xinzhang did after entering Gaegyeong was not to inventory the treasuries, nor to go to Changdeok Palace to see how many beauties there were, nor to pacify the people.

Instead, he had the entire Wang clan, the royal family of Goryeo, arrested from top to bottom, and then ordered Chen Sixie to assist Wang Pu in interrogating them in fine detail.

The crux of the interrogation was: where exactly did the Wang family come from?

Of course, Murong Xinzhang had long since arranged the answer — the Wang Geon family had to be the Lelang Wang clan, a great family of the former Northern Dynasties.

For although the Lelang Wang clan seemed to have little renown in the Central Plains — apart from an Empress Mingde, who bore a son named Yuwen Tai —

in fact, the Lelang Wang clan's influence and bloodline spread throughout Liaodong, the peninsula, and Japan, and it was terrifying.

After the Lelang Wang clan's descendants became a great family in the Northern Dynasties — and even before that — several branches split off and migrated to various places. The Wang clans of Silla and Baekje, the Nishi Fumi clan of Japan — these were all descendants of the Lelang Wang clan.

There were even rumors that among the Jurchens, Lelang Wang blood was extremely widespread; the Jurchen Wanyan was the Chinese character "Wang" transliterated into the various Liaodong peoples, and then transliterated back into Chinese.

One could say that after the loss of the Four Commanderies of Han, the name "Lelang Wang clan" was the deepest surviving remnant of Central Plains culture on the peninsula, which even the Goguryeo people could not erase.

And Murong Xinzhang, regardless of whether the Wang Geon family truly were Lelang Wang descendants, had to make them admit it — and there was a reason.

Only by fixing their family as descendants of the Lelang Wang clan could this war of conquest be separated from the ordinary people of the peninsula.

"What are you looking at? I'm dealing with disobedient clansmen. It has nothing to do with you. Go on obediently farming, fishing, and being lowborn wretches."

Events proved that the Brocade Robe Personal Guards were growing ever more professional in the path of interrogation.

Murong Xinzhang did not have many Brocade Robe Personal Guards with him, but in less than three days, under the punishments of the tiger bench and soybeans poured into the rectum, the Wang clansmen confessed completely.

They confirmed and affirmed that they were descendants of the Lelang Wang clan, and not descendants of Goguryeo people!

Having obtained this handle, Murong Xinzhang had all the Goryeo nobles of Gaegyeong, great and small, brought in under arrest, and furiously berated them.

In particular, the Yu clan — the family of the fallen Yu Jing — and the Huangfu clan and other families of Han descent were berated by Murong Xinzhang until they prostrated themselves trembling and dared not raise their heads.

The Goryeo king Wang So looked as though his tendons had been pulled out, with no trace of a human appearance left. Of course — no matter who it was, after starving for three days, anyone would look like this.

Murong Xinzhang waved his hand in disgust and was about to have him dragged away, when Wang Pu immediately stepped forward.

"Great King, the Wang family, as descendants of the Lelang Wang clan, have not only betrayed their ancestors, but also practice endogamy within the clan, corrupting human ethics. They are no different from beasts. I beg the Great King to examine this clearly."

Murong Xinzhang was genuinely shocked. So-called endogamy was not merely marriage within the family, but marriage between close relatives, even direct blood relatives.

Wang Pu continued in a loud voice: "Your servant has already ascertained that Wang So's queen, of the Huangfu clan, is his half-sister by the same father but a different mother.

The Lady of Qinghe Palace, of the Lin clan, is the daughter of his full elder brother Wang Wu — his own niece."

In an instant, the whole hall erupted in an uproar.

At this time, the Wang clan's Goryeo had not yet spread Confucianism across the peninsula, and the rites of human ethics had not yet received the attention of the peninsula's people.

Endogamy was even regarded by the Goryeo royal house as the surest means of preserving power, and other great families were not lightly permitted to imitate it.

On this peninsula, where a child's status and power were determined by the mother's identity, every noblewoman of standing and bloodline was a precious resource.

For example, Wang So's Lady of Qinghe Palace, of the Lin clan, was the maternal granddaughter of Lin Xi, a great family of Jinju.

At that time, Wang So and his brothers were being pressured by the powerful minister Wang Gyu, and Wang So's elder brother Wang Wu married his daughter, of the Lin clan — Wang So's own niece — to Wang So, thereby strengthening Wang So's power.

Sure enough, after learning that his maternal granddaughter had become Wang So's concubine, the Lin clan of Jinju began to support Wang So, becoming one of the greatest pillar forces behind him, and an important guarantee that he was not murdered by Wang Gyu.

Historically, the Goryeo Wang clan's endogamy grew ever more elaborate, until in later times nearly half or more of the kings were products of close-kin marriage.

The parents of Gyeongjong, Seongjong, and others were all full siblings, and King Daejong Wang Uk was even the bastard offspring of adultery between a niece and her uncle.

It really takes you bastards to play it this depraved!

Oh, no — the Japanese imperial house and Vietnam's Tran dynasty also practiced endogamy. All of them were "exalted ones."

In fact, endogamy was quite common in the early tribal period, and even before following Zhang Zhao, Murong Xinzhang had not been so sensitive about it.

But after following at Zhang Zhao's side, he continuously studied Central Plains learning, and with Zhang Zhao's teaching by word and example, Murong Xinzhang's thinking immediately changed.

I, Sage Zhang, come from a later age after all. Let alone endogamy between full siblings, even cousin marriage was something Zhang Zhao could not accept, and he strictly forbade it by decree.

Murong Xinzhang grew up beside such a man — how could he not be disgusted by endogamy?

Thus, when Murong Xinzhang heard of the Wang family's outrageous endogamy, he felt his entire worldview shatter.

He rose from his seat in fury, suppressed his disgust, and kicked the nearly starved-to-death Wang So square in the chest, then loudly commanded:

"The entire Wang clan has betrayed its ancestors, taken a thief for its father, and disregarded human ethics, committing such bestial acts. This absolutely cannot be tolerated. Drag them away — I will punish them severely."

Murong Xinzhang did not announce on the spot how he would deal with them, because he suddenly saw Wang Pu slowly shaking his head.

So the now extremely crafty Great King Murong immediately feigned rage and withdrew to the rear hall.

Sure enough, Wang Pu followed shortly after. Without waiting for Murong Xinzhang to ask, Wang Pu spoke directly:

"Great King, your servant observes that the rulers and ministers of Goryeo, high and low, are all shameless wretches. We entered the city and humiliated them so, yet hardly any rose to resist — clearly they wish to cling to life.

If they all kneel so shamelessly, the land for settling our meritorious officials will surely be insufficient, and the march to conquer Japan will certainly be delayed."

Since arriving in Goryeo, Wang Pu's spirit had become entirely different from when he was in the Liao lands.

For before coming south, Wang Pu had assumed Goryeo must be a wilderness like the Qingtang Plateau or the sand-filled deserts of Mobei.

But now that he saw it — oh, it was quite fine! Though certainly not comparable to the Central Plains, it was no wilderness. So he immediately set his mind at ease, decided not to return to the Central Plains, and prepared to follow Murong Xinzhang and serve him.

Murong Xinzhang and Wang Pu had been lord and minister for many years, so he naturally knew what his chief strategist was thinking. "Lord Wenbo, do you mean it would be better to force them into rebellion now?"

Wang Pu nodded. "This time, the Fourth Young Lord of Datong brought the fleet over extremely quickly, trapping most of the Goryeo noble ministers inside the city of Gaegyeong.

They haven't risen in fierce opposition yet only because they're worried about their own lives. The moment we relax even slightly in the future, they will certainly rebel.

Rather than deal with that trouble later, it's better to strike ruthlessly now. These people are currently in Gaegyeong; if they want to rebel, they can only try to slip out of the city and return to their home regions.

We can very well pretend to be a little careless, wait for them to leave the city, then send men to hunt them down along separate routes and raze their home territories. We could even let them organize their forces first, and then wipe them out."

In truth, the Zhou army's occupation of Gaegyeong was not tight at all, because everyone in the city was a local, while the Zhou soldiers, once outside the city, could not even fully tell east from west, south from north.

So over these days, large numbers of people had fled the city through open and covert channels. Those still here simply had too large a profile to leave.

Murong Xinzhang thought for a moment, then agreed to Wang Pu's plan. Indeed, compared with pacifying them, killing was faster and more direct.

On the twenty-fourth of the sixth month, after more than forty days, Zhao Yanjin led the Jinghai Commission's ten thousand-odd soldiers and sailors and a hundred vessels of various sizes, and also arrived safely off Ganghwa Bay.

With this, the forces under Murong Xinzhang's command grew substantially. Counting sailors and civilian laborers, the personnel he could deploy approached one hundred fifty thousand.

But along with this came extreme pressure on logistics. If he did not reduce the number of mouths to feed, relying solely on civilian porters transporting supplies from Andong would simply not be enough.

So on the very next day after Zhao Yanjin's arrival — that is, the twenty-fifth of the sixth month — a terrifying rumor began to spread everywhere.

Word had it that this Great King Murong deeply hated the Goryeo commoners who practiced endogamy, and was preparing to slaughter every member of the great royal clans that practiced it, and to kill every person born of such endogamous unions.

After a day of panic and dread, an even more terrifying rumor arrived!

This time, not only would those practicing endogamy be killed, but also those who had married cousins — even those who had merely supported it, or whose family members practiced endogamy, would not be spared.

On the twenty-seventh of the sixth month, Murong Xinzhang added fuel to the fire.

Great King Murong issued an order at Suchang Palace, declaring that Wang Geon, the founding king of Goryeo, had taken a traitor as his father and violated the bonds of human relations. On these grounds, he ordered men to demolish the tomb mounds, spirit paths, and spirit temples of Wang Geon's mausoleum.

Afterward, he also stripped Wang Geon of all his temple names and posthumous titles, demoting his royal rank to Marquis of Betrayed Grace, and proposed requesting the court to bestow upon Wang Geon the posthumous title "Yougan."

Neither of those two posthumous titles was anything good. "You" meant defying propriety and disrupting the natural order; "Gan" meant violating the laws of the state.

This was the utmost insult. When Wang Geon founded his kingdom, he had been raised up by the great clans of every region. Of Wang Geon's twenty-nine consorts, only two were not from regional great clans; all the rest were daughters of great clans.

One could say that Wang Geon's twenty-five fathers-in-law were all the top great clans of Goryeo — not a single one was left out.

Their ties to the Wang clan's Goryeo were so intimate. Now that Wang Geon had become the Marquis of Yougan, Betrayer of Grace, could these great clans still gain any benefit?

And so, under Murong Xinzhang's deliberate pressure and feigned negligence, the various regions of Goryeo, which had been quiet for less than ten days, once again erupted in beacon fires.

On the fourth day of the seventh month, seven great clans — including Hong Cheng of the Hong clan of Hongju, Wang Shuang of the great clan of Gwangju, and the Kim clan of Cheongju — gathered thirty thousand troops and proclaimed a force of one hundred thousand, rising at Icheon County. Their army closed in from all sides to attack Suzhou (Suwon).

At the same time, the Myeong clan of Jinju and the Pyeong clan of Gyeongju rose at Chungju. Officials and generals of Naju (Gwangju), Andong Prefecture (the Busan and Ulsan area), and the various regions of Hapcheon, which the Great Zhou had not occupied, also sent troops in support.

Goryeo's Gwangju was the equivalent of the later Seoul and its surrounding satellite cities.

In precise terms, this meant that more than half of the southern peninsula — including Seoul, Gwangju, Busan, Ulsan, and Cheongju — was now in motion.

Murong Xinzhang was overjoyed and immediately dispatched troops by separate routes to suppress the rebellion. On the eighth day of the seventh month, Hong Cheng and the others, who had long failed to take Suzhou, were suddenly raided beneath the walls of Suzhou by Zhao Kuangyin personally leading his troops.

Previously, most of Goryeo's armed strength had been sent by Wang Zhao to Pyongyang. The soldiers Hong Cheng had recruited were mostly farmers and small townsfolk, with hardly any armor. How could they withstand Zhao Kuangyin's surprise attack?

After barely holding on for a little over two hours, Hong Cheng's thirty thousand peasant soldiers — the so-called hundred thousand strong army — collapsed and scattered.

Hong Cheng and Wang Shuang were both slain in battle. Of the thirty thousand troops, only a few thousand escaped; more than ten thousand were killed in battle, and more than ten thousand were taken prisoner.

The next day, Zhao Kuangyin led his troops in a fierce assault on Icheon County, taking it in only half a day.

After settling the rebellion, the Zhou army carried out bloody reprisals across the dozen-odd prefectures and counties under the jurisdiction of Gwangju.

More than nine hundred members of the Hong clan of Hongju, high and low, were all killed. The great Wang clan of Gwangju — a major clan belonging to a branch of the Silla Wang clan — fared even worse: over three thousand were killed, and their blood dyed the Han River red.

On the tenth day of the seventh month, Murong Yanchao and Zhao Siwan stormed Haeyang County in Naju — that is, the Gwangju where the little general threw his heavy punch. Only now, the rules of the game were far crueler than in the little general's day.

After taking Haeyang County, Murong Yanchao gave free rein to Zhao Siwan and the Begging-Life Troops under his command to plunder everywhere. All who had previously taken part in resistance, whether great clan or commoner, were killed.

The residents of Haeyang County and the defeated soldiers in the surrounding area totaled more than forty thousand people; in the end, fewer than half survived.

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, Gao Song guided Zhao Yanjin and Chen Hui to Andong Prefecture in Goryeo.

Chen Hui first defeated Andong Prefecture's fleet at sea, burning more than a hundred of Goryeo's last remaining warships and killing over a thousand men.

Then Zhao Yanjin and Chen Hui attacked along separate routes, finally cornering more than twenty thousand men of Goryeo's Andong garrison at Milseong County by the Nakdong River.

After a great battle, Goryeo's last remaining organized force of more than twenty thousand troops suffered catastrophic casualties: over two thousand were slain in battle, and those who jumped into the Nakdong River and drowned were beyond counting.

At this point, all of Goryeo's regular military resistance forces had been completely subdued within a single short month.

(End of Chapter)

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